Linda K. Sienkiewicz's Blog, page 60

When We Speak Out

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Rod McKuen Altered Book

Former US Poet Laureate said it was irrelevant to even speak of Rod McKuen as a poet.Pulitzer Prize-winning critic called McKuen’s work gooey schmaltz. Newsweek magazine called himthe King of Kitsch. InArts and Entertainment Fads,Frank W. HoffmanncalledMcKuen’s poetry “verse that drawled in country cadences from one shapeless line to the next.”

Despite the criticism, hispoems were translated into eleven languages. He sold over 60 million books worldwide. His songwriting earned him thesale of...

Can You Name These 70s Hits?

Angelica Shirrick, the narratorof my novel, In the Context of Love, came of age in the heady seventies. Historians called this decadea “pivot of change” in world history, and Novelist Tom Wolfe called this the “Me decade: in his New York Times essay “The Me Decade and the Third Great Awakening.”Many of the social issues brought forth inthe sixties in America remained central into the seventies– civil rights, equal rights, environmental concerns, and the antiwar movement. The hippie movement p...

How to Cope with Writer’s Self Doubt

I would start writing, then say, “This is no good at all.”

Sound familiar? In an interview in April’s The Writer,playwright Christopher Durangexplains how he coped with those nagging feelings that all writers get:

After my mother passed way, I got a commission from the Phoenix Theatre… At the time, I said I was going to write a play in which everyone in the world was in therapy with the same therapist. I thought it was funny, but when I started to write it, I couldn’t make it work. I would star...

Flying your Freak Flag over 50

The boho-chic, hippie look in the 1970s was non-conformist anti-fashion: free flowing, romantic, artsy and unique. I remember big floppy hats, maxi skirts, peasant blouses, faded denim, lace, patches and embroidery. Anything handmade or “natural” was coveted. I did a lot of my shopping at Joe’s Army Navy Store and the Salvation Army. I worewire-rimmed eyeglasses with pink-tinted lenses (they were actual prescriptionlenses, too). I loved fashioningmy own clothes and adding artistic touches to...

How was that crazy book art created?

Brian Dettmer’s Book Art

Have you seen those images of incredibly detailed sculptural book art being pinned and re-pinned all overPinterest? They are crazy! Don’t you wonder how they were created? I do mixed media, altered book art, but my work can’t compare to this craziness!

TED has avideofeaturingthe work of artist Brian Dettmer, who carves sculptures from outdated encyclopedias, textbooks and dictionaries.

So how does Dettmer create these incredible works of book art? First he seals the oute...

Get a corgi, never shower alone

I love my three year old Welsh Pembroke Corgi, Clementine, but lately, she’s been a little clingy. Maybe she has cabin fever. I’m her only source of entertainment, besides the little black squirrel that runs through the trees, and the black and white cat that sits on the other side of the chain link fence.As long as it’s over 18º F and there’s no wind, I’ve been bundling up and taking her for a walk through the cemetery, which is a block away, where it’s dryand ice free, unlike all the sidewa...

Get a corgi, never be alone

I love Clementine, but lately, she’s been a little clingy.

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I Carried Secrets…

From the novel, In the Context of Love.

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Small Fry vs. Small Fries

I was supposed to babysit the grandkids, so I texted my daughter “What time are you bringing the small fry over tomorrow?”She reminded me both childrenwere coming. I knew that. I texted back“Small fry is plural. Small fry = children.” (Small fry also means insignificant people, and small young fish. Look it up). Apparently she’d never heard the phrase before. She thoughtIshould have called them“small fries.”

Small fries iswhat you order at McDonald’s.

She asked her husband for his opinion. He t...